55 Search Results for ""st. john""

• St. John St. John

  • From: MaryJarvis
  • Description:

    On my Carribean Cruise we ported in St. Thomas and took a ferry to St. John. Very beautiful Island!!! We took a cab to Trunk Bay and had a blast snorkling, swimming and sunbathing. I really want to go back and stay there for more than a day trip. On our way back to the ferry I asked the driver to stop so I could take some pictures and I took plenty!!

  • 7 months ago
  • Views: 1091
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• Pelican at Caneel Bay, USVI Pelican at Caneel Bay, USVI

  • From: SharonNaylor
  • Description:

    First thing in the morning, the pelicans soar overhead and dive down to catch fish. It's amazing to see them soaring over the water, then circle around and dive in like a bullet. This guy came right up to us on the dock.

  • 1 year ago
  • Views: 313
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• Wild donkeys at Caneel Bay Wild donkeys at Caneel Bay

  • From: SharonNaylor
  • Description:

    Caneel Bay is located in a protected wildlife region on St. John, USVI, so you'll see these friendly, wild donkeys roaming around...including the new baby donkey! 

  • 1 year ago
  • Views: 375
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• Bay in St. John Bay in St. John

  • From: jskogan
  • Description:

    One of the many bay views on the island of St. John in the Virgin Islands that hikers are rewarded to at the end of a trail.

  • 2 years ago
  • Views: 227
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• St. John USVI St. John USVI

  • From: vioxtl
  • Description:

    If you look closely you can see a little human a top the cliff. This is a hike we took on the Ram's Head trail, in St. John USVI. St. John is the smallest of the three U.S Virgin Islands, and the majority of it is a National Park. The waters of the beaches are so pristine you can look down and see everything around you.

  • 2 years ago
  • Views: 473

• Beautiful St. John Beautiful St. John

  • From: brianhs
  • Description:

    Simply beautiful view as we finish our hike to take a dip...

  • 3 years ago
  • Views: 294

• Central Oregon Road Trip – A F Central Oregon Road Trip – A Far Away Feeling in My Own Backyard

  • From: oldfashiongirl
  • Description:

    Central Oregon Road Trip – A Far Away Feeling in My Own Backyard

     

    I am not one that travels in my own backyard very often, but instead I tend to save every precious vacation day for some far away, exotic local.  Even though I have lived my entire life in one of the most beautiful states in the country, Oregon, I have seen surprisingly little of it.  However, this summer my husband and I went against our usually travel tendencies and took a road trip three hours southeast into Central Oregon.  We might as well have gone three days southeast for how different it was from home – was this really still Oregon?

     

    The landscape changed quite dramatically in that three-hour car ride.  First escaping the urban trappings of Portland, out through suburbia and rural farmlands, gradually climbing through forests of fir trees up toward Mount Hood, only to descend down the other side of the mountain into an arid land of sagebrush and lava rock.  Everywhere I looked the horizon was framed by snow-capped mountain ranges. 

     

    Home base for this road trip was the little town of Bend.  Actually, it’s not so little anymore.  Bend saw a huge increase in population and development up until the housing bubble burst of 2007, going from the 5^th most overpriced real estate market in the US to the real estate market with the largest price drop in the country.  The boom reshaped Bend.  The funky, historic main street area is full of boutiques and breweries and although Bend has been hit hard by the economic downturn, there were a lot of people out shopping and eating and downtown seemed positively buzzing with activity.

     

    Have you ever spent the night at school?  Well, some of you probably have, but this was my first time.  Our accommodations in Bend was the eclectic St. Francis Hotel, operated by Oregon’s favorite wacky pub owners and hoteliers, the McMenamin Brothers.  The old building’s first life was as a Catholic schoolhouse; its much more exciting second life is as a hotel where the classrooms are the guestrooms and the rest of the school has been converted to a restaurant, bar, movie theater, brewery, and a gorgeous Moroccan-themed soaking pool.  The room was very comfortable and it was so nice to be able to do dinner and a movie without even leaving the hotel.  And did I mention the brewery on site?  I can confidently state that this is the first time that my bar tab has been more than the cost of the room. 

     

    One of the highlights of our trip was taking a day trip east to the John Day Fossil Beds and Painted Hills.  A little over two hours from Bend, the John Day Fossil Beds Visitor Center was a real highlight.  You can watch a scientist work on cleaning an ancient fossil likely found less than a mile from that very spot.  The educational displays were well done and interesting.  We both walked away from the center feeling like insignificant specks in a timeline grander than we could even imagine. 

     

    After the visitor center, we hiked the 1-mile Island in Time trail into the center of a gorgeous amphitheater of blue and green colored rock.  One of the most memorable aspects of the John Day Fossil Beds was the absolute lack of noise, human or auto - only the sound of the breeze rustling the sage brush and an occasional bird call. 

     

    On the way back from the John Day Fossil Beds are the vibrant Painted Hills.  Various mineral deposits in the earth are responsible for the different layers of colors in the hills.  We were lucky to visit while the wildflowers were in full bloom and to see Oregon’s state bird, the Western Meadowlark, and hear its beautiful song.  
    

     

    One piece of advice if you do decide to make this drive.  There are very little accommodations between Bend and the John Day Fossil Beds, so be sure to fill up before heading out and pack a picnic lunch.  If you don’t bring anything to eat with you, the only little town along the way with a café is the tiny old mining town of Mitchell (but I don’t recall seeing a gas station there).          

     

    The next day was spent exploring the many activities in and around Bend.  Our first stop was the charming High Desert Museum, which has indigenous animals on display that for whatever reason cannot be released into the wild.  There were many birds of prey, owls, reptiles and some mountain cats, as well as quite a bit of free wildlife roaming the grounds, including many ground squirrels and chipmunks darting this way and that.   

     

    The Newberry National Volcanic Monument is also a popular attraction.  Unfortunately, the visitor center was not open, even though it was the height of summer vacation travel time (late June).  But, the volcanic rock is hard to miss and you don’t really need a visitor center pointing that out to you.  We spent the time we would have spent at the visitor center hiking an easy mile to nearby Benham Falls.  The falls themselves weren’t very impressive, but some of the scenery and wildlife viewing was.  I spotted a river otter in a nearby wetland, and saw a variety of woodpeckers and other birds, including vultures. 

     

    That evening we had an absolutely lovely dinner at Pine Tavern Restaurant in downtown Bend (which is much nicer than the word “tavern” implies).  We sat on the beautiful patio overlooking Mirror Pond.  The service and food was absolutely perfect.  They serve homemade scones with honey butter as the breadbasket.  Trust me, I could have been happy just eating those all night!  The restaurant’s specialty is steak and you won’t be disappointed.  It was definitely the best meal of the trip!

     

    The next day, we checked out of our room at St. Francis, a little shocked by the size of our bar tab charged to the room, and hit the road again.  I love kitschy roadside attractions and they don’t get much kitschier than the Peterson Rock Gardens.  A few miles north of Bend off the main highway, Peterson Rock Gardens just screams retro 1950’s. 

     

    Unfortunately, it is pretty obvious that its heyday has long since past.  It’s basically someone’s private residence where they had built large monuments using the various rocks found on their property.  They built a big, rock Statue of Liberty, some houses, and other shrines that were a little less obvious exactly what they were supposed to be.  The most interesting thing about the place was probably the peacocks that roamed the ground.
    

     

    We left Peterson Rock Gardens and headed west toward the small Western-themed town of Sisters.  The town is one of those that obviously has some kind of ordinance requiring that all of the downtown buildings adhere to a certain theme and Sister’s theme was apparently an old Western town.  It was cute, but very touristy and too crowded for our taste.  Luckily, we were checking in to a fabulous resort a few minutes out of town, the Five Pines Lodge.  We had reserved a private cabin there and couldn’t have been happier with it.  The resort is only a few years old so everything is in really good shape.  Our cabin had a HUGE bathroom, at least three times the size of ours at home, with a double-shower-head walk-in shower.  The main room had a huge, comfy bed, fireplace and a soaking tub that filled up via a waterfall set into the wall.  There were also French doors out onto our own patio that looked back into the forest; perfect for relaxing with a glass of wine and watching the chipmunks scurry by.  Within walking distance from our cabin was an on-site brewery and a small movie theater that served pizza and beer.  We hunkered down for the evening in our room, watched a scary movie on the large flat-screen TV and took advantage of the soaking tub.  The perfect end to a perfect road trip.

     

    We were disappointed to leave the next day to start the drive home.  We had so much fun exploring this part of Oregon that’s been right in our own backyard this whole time.  This trip opened up my eyes that you don’t need to suffer through an 8-hour flight in order to wind up somewhere worthy of precious vacation hours.        

     

  • Blog post
  • 3 years ago
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• BeccaSmith79

  • Points:656
  • Views: 93
  • Since: 3 years ago
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• St. John views St. John views

  • From: lovinannah
  • Description:

    St. John beauty - USVI.

  • 3 years ago
  • Views: 391
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• Boats in Cruz Bay Boats in Cruz Bay

  • From: lovinannah
  • Description:

    St. John beauty - USVI.

  • 3 years ago
  • Views: 401
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• St. John St. John

  • From: lovinannah
  • Description:

    St. John beauty - USVI.

  • 3 years ago
  • Views: 366
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• View from St. John View from St. John

  • From: lovinannah
  • Description:

    St. John beauty - USVI.

  • 3 years ago
  • Views: 343
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• St. John Sunset St. John Sunset

  • From: lovinannah
  • Description:

    St. John beauty - USVI.

  • 3 years ago
  • Views: 297
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• Sun rise Sun rise

  • From: drang81
  • Description:

    From our trip to St. thomas and St. John It is so beautiful

  • 3 years ago
  • Views: 193
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• Sail boats Sail boats

  • From: drang81
  • Description:

    From our trip to St. thomas and St. John It is so beautiful

  • 3 years ago
  • Views: 212
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• Our Veiw from the balcony Our Veiw from the balcony

  • From: drang81
  • Description:

    From our trip to St. thomas and St. John It is so beautiful

  • 3 years ago
  • Views: 239
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• St. John St. John

  • From: drang81
  • Description:

    From our trip to St. thomas and St. John It is so beautiful

  • 3 years ago
  • Views: 204
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• Maho Bay Maho Bay

  • From: threejonz
  • Description:

    Maho Bay, St. John, USVI

  • 3 years ago
  • Views: 162
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• Sink your toes into a differen Sink your toes into a different beach every day for a year at Antigua

  • From: adventuresawayfromhome
  • Description:

    Get your passports out, pack your bags  and get ready to travel. Having lived on the island of Trinidad for six years, I've had the unique opportunity to travel to destinations different from those you've seen advertised on TV or in the glossy travel brochures at the local travel agency. Instead, I've ventured to less frequented spots in the Caribbean, most of which are visited by more European vacationers than Americans.  Most of these I learned about through word of mouth but some through Internet research.  I have traveled to these locations and will give you helpful tips and links for traveling there yourself. So let's get going.....

     

     

    Antigua

     

    Imagine traveling to a place where you can sink your toes into a different powdery white beach each day for an entire year!  The island of Antigua, which means "ancient" in Spanish, was named by Christopher Columbus in 1493 for a church in Seville, Spain and has 365 beaches.  Delta and US Airways will get you there by mid-afternoon.  As soon as you arrive at VC Bird International Airport you'll feel the soothing balmy breezes and watch the goats grazing peacefully on the green hillsides on the ride to the hotel.

     

    The Verandah Resort and Spa is eco-friendly and the newest all-inclusive, all-suite resort on the island.  With 200 rooms on 30 waterfront acres bordering a national park on the northeast coast this retreat has it all.  A welcome drink made with freshly blended local tropical fruits is yours upon arrival before you journey by golf cart to your room in one of many small buildings atop a cliff overlooking the beach and enclosed bay.  The rooms are a spacious 700-square-feet with living areas that include a fold-out queen sofa to accommodate families.  You'll have a microwave, mini-fridge, coffee and tea-making equipment and a private balcony where you can relax and enjoy your coffee and tea each morning.  There are three restaurants, four bars, a mega-sized pool, tennis courts, staffed gym, Kid's Club and activities office with computers, books and board games.

    

     

    An excursion close by is Devil's Bridge created as the sea eroded limestone making arches over time.  Getting there is just a short walk along a trail on the outskirts of the resort.  

     

    A half-day tour is available with Antigua Rainforest Canopy Tour where you'll experience nine ziplines that travel 200 to 300 feet above the forest floor.  Another option is diving with John from Aquanaut Divers.  There is also a hotel shuttle into St. John, the historic capital, for sightseeing and shopping at Radcliffe Cay.  St. John is a quaint town with brightly colored Caribbean buildings, some from colonial times.

     

    There are two beach areas at The Verandah and the largest is Lover's Beach.  There are towels, chaise lounges and non-motorized water sports available on the beach.  Instruction is available.  There is a bar and grill above the beach.  The Beach Bar and Grill is great for lunch with a beautiful view of the bay. 

    

     

    Take the tray from under the ice bucket in your room to the beach to carry water and drinks from the bar to your spot on the beach to minimize going up and down the stairs as often.  

    

     

    Dinner is a candlelit three-course affair in the main restaurant at the center of the resort.  There is evening entertainment poolside.

     

    Don't call your trip complete until you indulge in the 80-minute Caviar and Pearl Facial at The Verandah Spa.

     

    The resort is having a promotion through the end of 2010 with a second room free and Carnival in Antiqua is July 24-August 3.

     

    Tips for Traveling to Antigua:

     

    - Leave expensive jewelry at home. 

    - The hotel, tour operators and dive shops accept major credit cards and U.S. cash.  Antigua's currency is the Eastern Caribbean Dollar (ECD).

    - Antigua is one hour ahead of Central Standard Time March through the beginning of October and two hours ahead October through the beginning of March.

    - Bring sunscreen ( LOTS ), aloe vera, bug spray, water shoes, hats, several swimsuits and lightweight clothing.

    - Year round temperatures are in the 80s and 90s.

    - Adjust to "Island Time".....people aren't in a hurry in the Caribbean!

    - There is a $20 per person departure tax when you leave Antigua.

    - Bring the ice bucket tray from your room to the beach for carrying water and drinks from the cliff top beach bar.

    

    - Bring tennis shoes if you plan to hike or go on the zip line tour.

     

    Helpful Websites:

     

    - The Verandah Resort and Spa, www.verandahresortandspa.com

     

    - Antigua Rainforest Canopy Tour, www.antiguarainforest.com

     

    - Aquanaut Divers, 268-460-5000

     

    - Delta Air Lines, www.delta.com

     

    - U.S. Airways, www.usairways.com

    
    

  • Blog post
  • 3 years ago
  • Views: 484
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• Palm Palm

  • From: yannie
  • Description:
  • 3 years ago
  • Views: 397
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